How reliant on technology are we? Jack Mottram attempts 48 hours without it.
he experiment: to live without 4
technology for two whole days. No
mobile phone. no laptop. no intemet access. no iPod. no television. For some readers this would be no challenge at all. For others. the very thought will have them breaking out in a cold sweat.
I am firmly in the latter camp. On the night before the experiment is to begin. I realise how deeply technology has penetrated my life. I must copy out. in a hand illegible from under-use. to-do lists. telephone numbers. calendar items and notes. all of which are stored in triplicate: on my computer. telephone and the web. I notice in passing that I have four television programmes. at film. seven podcasts and 30-odd MP3s awaiting my attention. At this point. I find comfort. pathetically. in the fact that the day's bookmarks will be posted automatically to my weblog tomorrow. In short. my work. my spare time and my social life are all so bound up with technology that I fear all will judder to a painful halt.
Funnin enough. this doesn‘t happen. First. work. In some ways. the experiment increases productivity. I don‘t waste the first hour of the day idly pootling around the web. Writing in longhand. without the luxuries of a text editor. requires linear thinking. Instead of bashing out a muddle of ideas to be cut and pasted into something coherent. sentences must be settled on before they are written. It‘s a satisfying process. and quick. Reviewing an installation. unable to take reference snaps with my phone. I take full notes and find the review effectively writing itself. Research. though. is intolerable. with two-second Google searches becoming half- hour quests for the right book. More seriously. without email access. I miss a potentially lucrative opportunity to meet the editor of a new magazine.
In my spare time. I have allowed myself radio and vinyl records. since they are elderly. non-digital technologies. Even here. the experiment presents difiiculties. I am bound to the schedules. unable to stream a pirate station over the web. But my background music selection improves no end. I can‘t rely on the iPod to belch up a random selection. so actively choose albums and EPs. To my horror. I find a three-year-old LP sealed in cellophane. unopened because I had a copy on my hard drive. The loss of telly is bearable. but I feel a twinge when I realise I must wait to watch Apple CEO Steve Jobs announce his company's momentous switch from PowerPC processors to Intel.
The impact on my social life is similarly mixed. Blind to text messages and deaf to phone calls. I miss three invitations to meet friends down the pub. one to a party. another to an event with free booze.
In the end. I need these technologies. They allow me to work from home and without them I am isolated from my friends. That said. I will be changing a few habits. I‘ll spend more time with pencil and paper. and I'll certainly be combing my record collection for more unopened albums. But will I be taking more time off from my beloved technology"? Honestly. no.
TH W E".
Reviews XBOX/PSZ/PC
AREA 51 IMEQYVESSSM-
Imagine the excitement. You're ready to go with a first person shooter title that wallows in the familiar, semi- mythological ET versus US Airforce conspiracy theories. and you need an actor to voice the hero. Then the talent booker comes sprinting down the corridor waving a contract in her hand. ‘We got Mulder!‘ she screams and everyone rejoices. Now imagine the disappointment a few months later after Duchovny's VO session. His bored. monotonous. cannae-be-arsed delivery completely undermines any semblance of excitement and makes some good plotting and imaginative situations seem mundane. And it's a shame because. barring a few other minor gripes. Area 57 could have been a cracker. The level and creature design is lovely and the weaponry feels meaty. There are some fantastic set-pieces and a story that is both lengthy and involved. while an enjoyable character-morphing option adds novelty value. Unfortunately. you can't help imagining
how much better it could have been if the talent booker had got bad news.
(lain Davidson)
P82 MONSTER HUNTER
(Capcom) 0.
Now this is a sweet little concept: build up your warriors. customise their armour. equip them with some big, nasty weapons and send them out to track down and kill a variety of beautifully rendered monsters. A bit like a medieval JuraSSic Park with online multiplayer so you can team up for your beast hunting eprOits. You can hack up the Creatures you slay to gain rations and armour. Then go and screw it all up by giving it the most fiddly and
downright irritating control system there's been for an age. all involving both analogue sticks and the L1 button. More often than not y0ur precision blow will whistle through the air and miss yOur foe. lt's unwieldy and frustrating. which is why it's so disappointing. Everything looks so right then this sucks dry any pleasure to be had from what could have been such a joyous. kick-ass adventure.
(Henry Northmorel
XBOX
JADE EMPIRE (Microsoft) .00. Jade Empire is role playing by stealth. Thanks to the Eastern setting and the distinct lack of Orcs. Goblins
and pointy-bearded old men in hessian dresses. you would never know that. at its heart. Jade Empire is a traditional RPG. Of ocurse. if you're at all familiar with the Knights of the Old Repub/ic games. then y0u'll get it straight away. Despite a fantastically fresh combat system and the rich and colourful Oriental setting. there is no escaping the heritage. The developer Bioware had a successful formula and Jade Empire follows it slavishly. Although this may SOund a bit negative. in truth, the outcome is far from it. Barring the first hour or so of stOry-seeding and scene-setting. the pace is perfect. drawing you through a tight plot that has some great characters and nice twists. With most of the development options stripped to the core. Jade Empire sacrifices depth in order to avoid the USUaI dice-rolling, point-counting exerCise. The re8ult is a Vibrant fairytale packed With action and atmosphere. (lain Davidson)
FOOD & DRINK
If you tnOught Morgan Spurlock went for the ultimate dietary test in Super Size Me, think again. Burty has risen to the ‘Guinness is a meal in itself' challenge with this great wee blog. in which he describes what it's like eating nothing but Guinness. milk and vitamin C tablets for one week. www.meguinnessdietblogspotcom/
MOVIES
also available.
We all know the movie industry is run by big bucks. and here's the best place to check those returns. It's got bOx office figures for pretty much every film ever released. Sometimes only the US figures are available but in the main worldwide takings and budgets are
www.the-numbers.com
23 Jun—7 Jul 2005 THE LIST 109